Hobbies and Crafts

Yes it was a great book Perse so I am pleased you 'found' it :-D

Well I for one am glad that you put "The Island" up in error. I finished it yesterday morning and thought it a wonderful book. It would probably have been one of those books that passed me by.


Look forward to your return Tess. xx

Tess fingers crossed then. Yes you are correct, we did read it and that was an error on my part, I meant to put her latest one on I think it is called the Sunrise or something. maybe I will put that on next time.

Just read this list again and that I might have read. The Island already, possibly two or three years ago. Can't remember if it was for Breeders or just because it looked interesting. Will have to check my old notes to check.
Am also hoping to get my special transport (Ring and Ride) to a library once a fortnight or so. This library, which I have yet to visit, is adjoining a Tesco supermarket. Should be able to pop into the library when I get the bus to the supermarket.
If all this pans out I hope to become a fully fledged member of breeders again, :-) :-) :-)

Just read this list again and that I might have read. The Island already, possibly two or three years ago. Can't remember if it was for Breeders or just because it looked interesting. Will have to check my old notes to check.
Am also hoping to get my special transport (Ring and Ride) to a library once a fortnight or so. This library, which I have yet to visit, is adjoining a Tesco supermarket. Should be able to pop into the library when I get the bus to the supermarket.
If all this pans out I hope to become a fully fledged member of breeders again, :-) :-) :-)

Sorry I am late.. it is Thurs morning here.. and I did pop in your Wed morning, my Wed night at about 10pm my time..

Nearly forgot this morning.


Edit: who wrote The Girl in the Photograph.

Without a Trace by Lesley Pearse

Coronation Day, 1953. In the Somerset village of Sawbridge, young shopkeeper Molly Heywood slips away from the celebrations to her friend Cassie's cottage and makes a shocking discovery: Cassie is dead and her six-year-old daughter Petal has vanished without a trace. In her grief, Molly seeks help from her childhood friend George, now the village policeman, but no one can find Petal. The only clue is a letter from London, where Cassie once lived. Despite George's reluctance and her growing feelings for him, Molly resolves to go to London in the hope of discovering the missing child. Arriving in the big city, Molly quickly learns it's a dangerous place for a country girl on her own. But there's hope too - in the Blitz-ruined East End, she unexpectedly finds friendship with strangers from Cassie's past and, with handsome, mysterious workman Charley, the possibility of something more. However, the closer Molly gets to the truth, the more perilous her journey becomes. She has given up everything - her home, happiness and a chance at love - all to find Petal. But is she also risking her life?

The Woman who stole my life by Marian Keyes

'Okay, I'll write my introduction. 'Name: Stella Sweeney. Height: average. Recent life events: dramatic.' Stella Sweeney is an ordinary woman living an ordinary life with her husband Ryan and their two teenage kids in Dublin. She works with - or really for - her terrifyingly ambitious sister Karen in their beauty salon. Nothing to get excited about here. Nothing to make her particularly unhappy. Or happy . . . No-one would be interested in stealing her life. But then things started to happen . . . One day, Stella, attempting a good deed, causes a little car accident and faces down a bad tempered, handsome stranger. She hardly gives it much of a thought. But karma is hovering, and is about to take over, swoop in and change Stella's life for ever. For better or worse. Suddenly Stella has a life. A thrilling glamorous one. A life that other people might start to covet . . .

The Girl in The Photograph (edit- sorry) by Kate Riordan

When Alice Eveleigh arrives at Fiercombe Manor during the long, languid summer of 1933, she finds a house steeped in mystery and brimming with secrets. Sadness permeates its empty rooms and the isolated valley seems crowded with ghosts, none more alluring than Elizabeth Stanton whose only traces remain in a few tantalisingly blurred photographs. Why will no one speak of her? What happened a generation ago to make her vanish?

As the sun beats down relentlessly, Alice becomes ever more determined to unearth the truth about the girl in the photograph - and stop her own life from becoming an eerie echo of Elizabeth's . . .


The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Irene must be at the top of her game or she'll be off the case - permanently. . .
Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she's posted to an alternative London. Their mission - to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.
Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested - the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene's new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.
Soon, she's up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option - the nature of reality itself is at stake.

The Last Embrace - Pam Jenoff

August 1940 and 16-year-old refugee Addie escapes Fascist Italy to live with her aunt and uncle in Atlantic City. As WW2 breaks, she finds acceptance and love with Charlie Connelly and his family.

But war changes everything: secrets and passions abound, and when one brother’s destructive choices lead to the tragic death of another, the Connelly family is decimated, and Addie along with them.

Now 18, she flees, first to Washington and then to war-torn London where she is swept up with life as a correspondent. But when Charlie, now a paratrooper, re-appears, Addie discovers that the past is impossible to outrun. Now she must make one last desperate attempt to find within herself the answers that will lead the way home.



The Silent Hours - Cesca Major

An epic, sweeping tale set in wartime France, The Silent Hours follows three people whose lives are bound together, before war tears them apart:

Adeline, a mute who takes refuge in a convent, haunted by memories of her past;

Sebastien, a young Jewish banker whose love for the beautiful Isabelle will change the course of his life dramatically;

Tristan, a nine-year-old boy, whose family moves from Paris to settle in a village that is seemingly untouched by war.

Beautifully wrought, utterly compelling and with a shocking true story at its core, The Silent Hours is an unforgettable portrayal of love and loss.

Full circle Katie Flynn writing as Judith Saxton.
Hitler's war is reaching out to affect every member of the Neylor family. Val Neylor, driving an ambulance through the blazing heart of London, is in an impossible position, for the man she loves is a fighter pilot with the Luftwaffe. And Jenny, whose husband Simon is flying Spitfires, finds herself working as a landgirl on a Devon farm. Cara, by contrast, develops her social life, and Maudie, in the WAAF, falls in love with two men at once ... Tina, matriarch of the family loves them all, scolds them all, and tries to understand the new generation growing up in the troubled times of war.



The Island by Victoria Hislop
The acclaimed million-copy number one bestseller and winner of Richard & Judy's Summer Read 2006 from Victoria Hislop is a dramatic tale of four generations, rent by war, illicit love, violence and leprosy, from the thirties, through the war, to the present day.
On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more.
Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga - Greece's former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip..

Please put your suggestions up now. Vote will be as soon as we have all posted suggestions.


Review will be Wednesday 30 September. (brought back a couple of days as I will be going away that weekend. :-D :-D